Suffering (under construction)

Kinds of suffering

There are different kinds of suffering:

1. There is physical suffering, where the body suffers pain.
a. Acute pain; I smashed my thumb with a hammer.
b. Chronic pain; my joints hurt from arthritis.
c. Hunger or thirst; I want or need food or water.
d. Weariness - the suffering of being tired from work or exertion. "In due time you will reap if you do not grow weary." "Come to me all you who are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest."
e. Lack of sleep.
f.  Cravings.  I want chocolate or sugar.
g. Sexual pressure; I want sex and relief.

2.  There is emotional suffering
Rejection
Loneliness
Shame
Guilt
Fear
Anger
Grief
Abuse
Humiliation
Obedience
Irritation
Disappointment
Awkwardness
Slavery to idols
Pressure No pressure, but if you don’t get through this, everybody goes to hell.

Patience is being willing to suffer without giving God a deadline to end it.
We want to learn to embrace paying rather than make it go away.
We don’t have to quit, but we can take a rest. If possible.

Sources of suffering
God,
others
Satan
Brokeness of the world
My own sin

Increased suffering is God's calling to the next league up.

Some fruit - the presence of Christ - for example can be drunk abundantly and deeply.Delayed gratification.
Whatever you pay for upfront, you get back with interest.
The instruction of the cross is the instruction about suffering.
For the joy set before him, he endured the cross. Hold in front of you the joy of what you were suffering for.



How do I fellowship with Jesus in my suffering? Philippians 310 the fellowship of his suffering.
He who hates his life. Hating your life is making yourself suffer.
If anyone wishes to come after me let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. We had to put away self. We have to take up suffering. In Jesus is the ultimate goal in all of this. It can’t be for pride of being able to suffer. Also it’s take up your cross daily. It’s something that has to be done every day.
Jooih
Hinds feet sorrow and suffering
Fellowship with the shepherd
God’s grace is not taking away the pain but helping us endure and get through it.
People left the farms because they could not get ahead. Also it is really difficult to have to depend on God for your living. However what a glorious existence crying out and depending on the Lord every day to provide.
Anyone bears fruit he prunes it that it might be her more fruit. This pruning has a sense of hacking. It may be very painful. But it will bring the fruit.
When a lien loves you, it can be a painful experience. His claws can sometimes scratch his teeth can sometimes nick you. When he stands on your chest and licks your face it’s uncomfortable. Sometimes he takes you with him out in the bush out in the wild. It’s not comfortable out there. It’s hot. It’s dangerous. But he loves you and he wants to be with you.
CS Lewis said you wanted a God who loves you? Congratulations! You’ve got one.
Medicating our pain is not for bidden in the Bible. Let wine be given to him whose life is better. But when we medicate we miss the benefit of what God is doing in our pain. So there’s that fruit. Also if the medication becomes an idol then that is sin

We want to learn to suffer and overcome affliction so that we can be with Jesus. If he calls me in the middle of the night to pray and I cannot endure in weariness, then I cannot be with him. If he calls me to join him in sharing him with another person, but I am afraid then I cannot join him. If he calls me to serve and labor, but I am lazy and cannot get off of the couch then I cannot join him. Beware of the pride of suffering for suffering’s sake.

The heart is the instrument of our vocation. Spurgeon
You can always tell someone who has suffered, they all have time for you. Chambers
He who has suffered a seized from Sin
The tree produces the opposite of the fruit. I’ll discipline seems sorrowful and not joyful peaceful through righteousness. Also in excess of rest and things and material things and comfort and and suffering and sorrow.

The fruits of righteousness are meant to be a taste of things to come. They are not meant to be a steady diet in this life. As a steady diet in this life, they will bring sorrow and misery. And suffering. These are the seeds that they contain.

Where I am there with my servant be also. If we want to be with Jesus we have to be his servant. If we want to be his servant we have to be where he is doing what he wants to do. Doing what he likes to do. Doing the things that are important to him. In order to do them we must be in shape. We must be ready to suffer and carry her across. Otherwise we cannot go with him. He says I wish you were willing to die to yourself and take up your cross you cannot come after me. He’s not saying he’s not giving permission, He is stating a reality that if you want to go where he goes then self denial and cross carrying are a must.

1Co 12:26 And if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it;

[2Co 1:3-7 NASB] 3 Blessed [be] the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, 4 who comforts us in all our affliction so that we will be able to comfort those who are in any affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. 5 For just as the sufferings of Christ are ours in abundance, so also our comfort is abundant through Christ. 6 But if we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation; or if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which is effective in the patient enduring of the same sufferings which we also suffer; 7 and our hope for you is firmly grounded, knowing that as you are sharers of our sufferings, so also you are [sharers] of our comfort.

It is well known that humor, more than anything else in the human make-up, can afford an aloofness and an ability to rise above any situation, even if only for a few seconds. … The attempt to develop a sense of humor and to see things in a humorous light is some kind of a trick learned while mastering the art of living. Yet it is possible to practice the art of living even in a concentration camp, although suffering is omnipresent. victor frankl



He cites Nietzsche’s, who wrote that “He who has a why to live for can bear with almost any how,” and admonishes against generalization:



Woe to him who saw no more sense in his life, no aim, no purpose, and therefore no point in carrying on. He was soon lost. The typical reply with which such a man rejected all encouraging arguments was, “I have nothing to expect from life any more.” What sort of answer can one give to that?



What was really needed was a fundamental change in our attitude toward life. We had to learn ourselves and, furthermore, we had to teach the despairing men, that it did not really matter what we expected from life, but rather what life expected from us. We needed to stop asking about the meaning of life, and instead to think of ourselves as those who were being questioned by life — daily and hourly. Our answer must consist, not in talk and meditation, but in right action and in right conduct. Life ultimately means taking the responsibility to find the right answer to its problems and to fulfill the tasks which it constantly sets for each individual.



These tasks, and therefore the meaning of life, differ from man to man, and from moment to moment. Thus it is impossible to define the meaning of life in a general way. Questions about the meaning of life can never be answered by sweeping statements. “Life” does not mean something vague, but something very real and concrete, just as life’s tasks are also very real and concrete. They form man’s destiny, which is different and unique for each individual. No man and no destiny can be compared with any other man or any other destiny. No situation repeats itself, and each situation calls for a different response. Sometimes the situation in which a man finds himself may require him to shape his own fate by action. At other times it is more advantageous for him to make use of an opportunity for contemplation and to realize assets in this way. Sometimes man may be required simply to accept fate, to bear his cross. Every situation is distinguished by its uniqueness, and there is always only one right answer to the problem posed by the situation at hand.

What are the benefits and blessings of suffering?
Therefore, since Christ has suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves also with the same purpose, because he who has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin, - 1Pe 4:1 NASB
If you are reviled for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory and of God rests on you. - 1Pe 4:1, 14 NASB
but if [anyone suffers] as a Christian, he is not to be ashamed, but is to glorify God in this name. ... Therefore, those also who suffer according to the will of God shall entrust their souls to a faithful Creator in doing what is right. - 1Pe 4:16, 19 NASB
And He was saying to [them] all, "If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross daily and follow Me. "For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake, he is the one who will save it. "For what is a man profited if he gains the whole world, and loses or forfeits himself? - Luk 9:23-25 NASB
What is suffering the gateway to?
How does suffering help me to know Jesus?
4. What can I learn that will increase my ability to suffer (patience, long suffering)
For the joy set before him he endured the cross.  We have to find and keep meaning in our suffering.

Questions (under construction)

1. How would you describe a relationship with Christ to a person who does not know Jesus?
2. How deos Jesus or your relationwhip with him affect the way you parent? Your marriage?  Your life?
3.  What attracts you to Jesus?
4.  What keeps you walking with Jesus?
5.  Paul refers to "according to my gospel". What is your gospel?  What is your good news?
6. How do you think differently about      parenting, Jesus, time, money      than you did X years ago?
7.  How has your marriage changed over the years?

The Purpose of the Gospel

“Draw me after you and let us run together!" Song 1:4

The purpose of the Gospel is not to produce holy specimens to be admired, but to remove the barriers to enraptured love for God, unencumbered by the thought of self.  We can want to be saved and sanctified so that we can feel better about ourselves and think we are getting somewhere (finally!) in the spiritual economy.  We can want to be made right with God, to have our sins cleansed, to be made sons, to be made holy. However, these are means, not ends. The purpose of the Gospel is to remove the relational barriers between God and us.  His intent was to free us of self-examination so that we can live a life of loving abandon, so enraptured that we are unconscious of ourselves.  The lover is so intoxicated with the beloved that there is no room for a thought of himself.   This is what God wants.

Oswald Chambers says, "Salvation is not merely deliverance from sin, nor the experience of personal holiness; the salvation of God is deliverance out of self entirely into union with Himself. My experimental knowledge of salvation will be along the line of deliverance from sin and of personal holiness; but salvation means that the Spirit of God has brought me into touch with God’s personality, and I am thrilled with something infinitely greater than myself, I am caught up into the abandonment of God."

Am I absorbed in a Christian self-improvement program, or finding myself more and more lost in him?

Meditations on the Gospel (under construction)

The chief end for man is to "glorify God and enjoy him forever."  Or we can consider John Piper's permutation: "The chief end of man is to glorify God by enjoying him forever."  Another way to think of "enjoying" God is to love him, as it is commanded in the Great Commandment: "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind..." (Deut 6:5).


The gospel is a means, not an end.  The gospel has cleared away all the barriers so that we can focus on relationship with Jesus. That is the main thing that he is after.    You are a criminal. The gospel takes care of your sin and death. You have no merit of your own. The gospel gives you the merit and righteousness of Christ. You are an alien and a stranger. The gospel makes you a son. You are unholy and impure. The gospel sanctifies you and set you apart you are certainly not a glorious creature. The gospel ultimately gives you glory. These are the barriers to relationship. So now we can stop focusing on them, and focus on Jesus and our glorious bride groom.
Now you can get rid of your parole officer and judge. You can get rid of your DSS worker because now you are a son. You can get rid of the loan officer, because you are no longer in DAT you are fabulously rich rich.
So now if you were preoccupied with these, then you are wasting your time and believing Satan‘s lies. You were also wasting Jesus‘s time. This really goes back to brother Lawrence and his focus on relationship with Christ. He did not concern himself with being preoccupied with paying for sins and guilt. He realize that when he was not fellowship being with Jesus he needed simply to go back and reestablish the relationship.
Does glorification really have to do with value and honor?
The gospel lays out the five benefits that we have in Christ. These benefits are they are not simply for ourselves, but so that we can be brought in a relationship with Jesus Christ.
In glorification Christ meets our need for significance and value. I am a nobody, but in the gospel I am significant. It is like I am a nobody, but the president picks me out and lips up my head above my enemies around me.The gospel solves my relationship problems with God wants, and also every day. The gospel really is the ABC and the a to Z of life.
 Chesterton tells the story of a ship captain who took a ship and sailed out to see in to conquer new lands. He got turned around in a storm and landed on the beach and claimed the territory for his country. Only to find out that he had read discovered his own land. So in the same way we are always read discovering the gospel
Where do I go when I think Jesus is not enough to cover my guilt


The king opposes you because you have no honor. The judge opposes you because you are a criminal criminal. The holy God opposes you because you are in pure and impure pig. The master opposes you because you have nothing to offer. The fatherThe father opposes you because you were not part of his family.
Jesus provides a relationship with the king by giving us his righteousness.

    I either hide my guilt or rationalize my guilt.

Three things are needed to get into the kings presence. Relationship you need to be a son or a relative. Honor, you need to be a dignitary or BA somebody. Or merit, you need to be somebody who has something to offer to the king. We have none of these, and also at the same time we have two liabilities. One is that we are criminals. The second is that we are pigs and   And unclean.
 Christ resolves our problems with the union so that we can now have communion.
We substitute self righteousness for his righteousness and merit. We take our guild and Medicaid it or hide it. We set aside his Sunship and try to earn the favor of God and perform like an orphan. We set aside our sanctification and pursue our idols in adultery’s. We set aside the glory that he provides and try to establish our own significance and value.
We are like the Israelites, we get tired of the true bread the same way they got tired of the mana. We are like the Pharisees we want to establish our own righteousness apart from that which is given to us by Christ. We are like the Israelites and that we love all of our adulterous lovers and we even pay them instead of them paying us. He hates our self righteousness, because we have given him a gift wrapped box of sewage. He hates our hiding our sin because we have trampled on the blood of his son. He hates us when we try to perform as an orphan because we are his enemy. He hates us and our idolatries because we are cheating on his son. He hates us win we tried to steal honor from his son.
He wore a crown of thorns so that we could wear a crown of glory. He was stripped of his clothes so that we could be closed with a Robert righteousness. He was pierced for our transgressions. His heart was broken and gosh towards blood and water so that we could have a new heart. And he was separated from his father so that we could be Sons.

Jed talks
Sober song
Call Jackson
Have people do a project


You were not redeemed by silver gold but with precious blood. This is our glory and value in Christ. Next lineWhat is a relationship about
Love, communication, union, communion, being together,
   Sharing

 Obedience, working together,



Audio recording started: 19:40 Monday, March 11, 2019

 The paradigm for baptism is baptize with not baptized into. John said he will baptize you with water with the spirit I baptize you with water. That ties means to soak but not necessarily to immerse.
If my goal is to stop sending or stop porn or stop lust, then when I don’t make progress I feel bad about myself. If the goal is to fellowship with Jesus then I simply need to keep cleansing as necessary.
The goal is not to beat a porn, the goal is to fellowship with Christ.
Where does it say in the Bible that the purpose of Christ dying or the purpose of the gospel is to restore our relationship with Jesus.
No matter where we are or what we’re doing or what we have done, we can abide in Christ right now. That is the ultimate goal of the gospel.
     The goal of the gospel is to restore the relationship with God and that was broken in the garden of Eden.
Sanctification justification adoption propitiation glorification all our means to an end. They are not the end. Relationship with Jesus Christ is the end.
How do we fellowship with Christ in sufferingHow does the gospel tie in to the design purposes of God? Glorify him love him love your neighbor heart issues? The gospel glorifies God because it demonstrates his mercy in the excellencies of his justice and love. The gospel is based on love and God supremely. It breaks down the barriers to our relationship with him. The gospel emphasizes our relationship with others, as we demonstrate gospel love to them. The gospel is about heart change, as well as life change and won’t change. The gospel will cost us everything. The gospelN  hMake the table of contents of a book as a map.

Galatians 220 is a transfer of identity necessary in the gospel.For each area it would be like a country. Each country would have counties and cities and states. On the other hand each country would also have resources people geography and an economic The map is a map of our inheritance. My inheritance is beautiful to me. The Lord was their inheritance. They were looking for another country.
Having God has her in Heritance really is the promised land.
The cities reflect the institutions of man such as marriage work jobs.
 situation.
In the gospel Christ has not only paid the penalty for our sins that is repatriation but he is also earned us the unfathomable riches of righteousness.
The gospel is not about being a better person. God’s purposes that we be more in relationship with him and with Jesus. So as I see myself growing in maturing and being a better person, I should not rejoice in that, but only in greater joy and fellowship in Jesus. Don’t rejoice in your sanctification. Don’t rejoice in self control. Fix your eyes on Jesus.
If you think that Senn is doing bad things, and that the goal is to stop doing bad things, then he will rejoice when you are doing well and be depressed when you’re not. You will become prideful when you stop sending, and be ashamed when you do. However, if you understand it Senn is a broken fellowship with Jesus, and that the goal is to abide continually and him, then in our eyes are fixed on him, and we are unconscious of ourselves. The lover is always unconscious of himself in the presence of his love. He is not trying to be a better person for, he is only focused on her and enjoying her.

Jesus takes care of her soon the way that the German officer tossed Corrie 10 boom Record into the fire. Jesus gives us access his son‘s glory Kermit Roosevelt had access to his father, all dignitaries that were not just children had to stand outside. Jesus gives us righteousness and access the way Bill Gates walks into his bank and they give him whatever he needs. Jesus gives significance to wayI became a significant when Maria Brown decided I was gonna be your friend.
I am sanctified the way a virgin bride sanctified and set apart for her husband.
Pieper says that we glorify God by enjoying him forever. Enjoying his Oswald Chambers loving God with abandon to the point where we are no longer conscious of ourselves.

Five worries we have only come into the presence of God and how the gospel takes care of them
Philippians 310 in the amplified describes another picture of the abandon that we have that Oswald Chambers talks about.
Adam and Eve were naked I am not ashamed. After they send then they felt shame at their nakedness. When we come into the presence of God we feel our shame. We have the guilt of our sin the lack of our righteousness the broken relationship the fact that we are nobodies and that we are unholy people. The gospel takes care of all of these includes us so that now we can come into his presence without shame

Galatians 220 is also another photograph of a relationship with Christ and our abandon. Paul says I am crucified with Christ. This means I’m dead to all self concern. Now only Christ lives in me. This also ties into Martin Luther and his thought that the believer can never look at himself but only at Christ.
Need to make a prayer app so we can put pictures and lists into something so we could pray. Window actually would probably work fine.

God is having a wedding. You are invited. How to make sure that you don’t get kicked out. The man who did not wear the wedding clothes. We must have the clothes that he gives us and put them on. We also have to take off the clothes that we’re wearing. We have to take off our prisoners uniform. We have to take off the smelly clothes that stink of the world. We have to put on the robe of righteousness. We have to wear the seal of the Sunship.
Nobody earned their way into the wedding. You must bring the invitation with you. The invitation response is faith.

Write a book says that you can read it page 1 page to page 3. Or you can read it according to the table of contents which chapters would not necessarily be in numerical order. Or you could read it as a chain where each piece of the story or the book takes you to the next piece. Or you could have a chapter for each day of the year and do it by date.

Understanding Marshall McLuhan (under construction)

Implosion.  During the mechanical era, things were exploding.  This means that our access to information was increasing, technology was advancing, we were able to reach out to further and further horizons.  During the electronic age, things are imploding.  No longer are we trying to increase information, reaching for more technology and pursuing further horizons.  These things are falling in on us - we are inundated with information and new technologies.  We live responding to the environment that is imploding and caving in on us.

Heartwork (under construction)

We shape our heart and our heart shapes us.  We shape our heart by what we feed it, what we put into it, what we put in front of it.  Our heart shapes us by producing the thoughts, understandings, emotions, desires, values and choices that shape our lives and who we are.

Our heart is the software and operating system of our lives.  Inputs are processed by the heart to produce our outputs (thoughts, understandings, emotions, desires, values and choices).  If the software becomes corrupted, then the output is corrupted.  "If your eye (your perception - a function of the heart) is bad, then your whole body is full of darkness." Mt 6.

The heart is the fishbowl in which we live and move and have our being. The heart produces the internal environment in which we live.  Our experience of living consists of "duvects" (Desires, understandings, values, emotions, choices, and thoughts).  The heart produces the water in which we live and swim - "the springs of life."

The heart is the control center of the person.  We live near a nuclear power plant.  The control center is highly protected because an enemy can wreak havoc and destroy the facility.  "Watch over your heart with all diligence..."

Satan, the father of lies, deceives us by making what is good seem bad and what is bad seem good.  He has swapped the buttons on a vending machine so that we push the Dr. Pepper button, and a can of sewage pours into our fishbowl.  But it says Dr. Pepper so we keep pressing it, even though it keeps pouring sewage into the bowl.  But it's the sewage button (the Cross) that has the good stuff in it.  Few are those who discover this truth, and it has to be rediscovered continually.  The Bible tells us which buttons that we must push - it was written for us in our fallen, mislabelled world.

The heart can lead the mighty to ruin.  David, Solomon, Mark Sandford, Bill Clinton are all examples of this.

Billions of dollars are spent on advertising each year to win hearts.

Proverbs 4:23 says to watch over, keep, guard our hearts.  We only watch over: 1) that which has value and someone might steal. 2) that which has value and might wander off 3) that which has value and might be damaged or harmed. No one watches over their garbage.

It is useless to watch over an unregenerate heart.  An unregenerate heart loves sin.  Working with an unregenerate heart is like cleaning up a pig - it will always go back to wallow in the mud and filth that it loves.

Only Jesus can give a new heart.

Examples the heart in action: Duvects...

Miscellaneous thoughts (under construction)

1. Every generation has a new technology or new technologies that their parents didn't grow up with.  My grandparents (born in the 1880s and 1890s) did not grow up with cars but had to raise children with cars.  My parents (born in the 1920s) didn't grow up with television but had to raise children with television.  We didn't grow up with computers, internet, and cell phones, but raised (and are raising) our children with these technologies.
2. The Bible is like a coral reef deep beneath the ocean surface.  In order to experience its beauty and to discover its treasures, you have to go out in a boat, put on scuba gear, and dive in.  This all takes time. It is a slow process.  This is in contrast to skiing, in which you are pulled across the water at high speed. You skim over the surface and are completely unaware of the rich beauty that is unseen in the frothy wake of the ski boat.
3.  The slower we went the better the stories got.
4.  Learn to be a child and a learner.  "Do you know Jesus?"  "What do you think determines who goes to heaven and who doesn't?"  If I were desiring to become a Muslim, I'd ask baby questions of every Muslim looking person I see.
5. Just like tools, technologies and media all are extensions of our bodies, senses or minds, so are the people in our lives. And so the laws of media apply to them too.
a. What are they an extension of?  My wife is an extension of my feet and mind when she goes to Lowes for me.
b. What is replaced or obsolesces?  My ability to know where I'm going when I am driving decreases significantly when Sue is in the car.
6.  I like cooking and baking using other peoples thoughts as ingredients.
7.  You will vomit it and it will come out your nose.  Excess always brings the opposite of what you think you are going to get from "a little bit more".  The Israelites were tired of manna and complained and grumbled.  God said, Ok, you want meat, I'll give you meat. So they had meat until they threw up.  This illustrates that a bowl of ice cream is a joy, eating an entire 5-gallon bucket of it will make you sick.  A thousand dollar bonus would be a joy to anyone, so why wouldn't winning $100 million in the lottery be better?  A thousand dollars has the aroma of blessing and joy and a bit of freedom.  However, $100 million would be a curse and prison for most.  This is the testimony of most lottery winners. The poison is in the dose.
8.  The famous picture of the young woman / old woman illustrates that the same information can be perceived differently by different people.  For years I read the Bible as primarily a book to help me figure out how to be a better person, a book about God's standards, and a book to show me how ugly and inadequate I am.  Every time I read the phrase "the encouragement of the scriptures" I grimaced. I only saw the old woman.  When I came to see the young woman (the "new" woman?) I saw the Bible as a book about God and his love for people, his desire for others to experience his excellencies and his glories, and a book about how amazing Jesus is.  It is the same book, but a different book.
9.  A three year old plays on the floor of the attorney's office.  The will is being read.  He is bored listening to the reading of his fabulous wealth because he doesn't understand it.  If I'm bored with God and the Bible, it is not because of lack of content, depth, and wonder.
10.  There are definite milestones in growth in Christ that are "either / or". However, much (most?) of the growth process is just that, a process.
11.  What words do we use to describe experience?
a. Engaging, interesting, boring
b. Stimulating
c. Peaceful
d. Emotions
12.  In beauty, the woman must decide what to reveal and what to conceal.
13.  Books to read: James Mertin - The Humor of Jesus
14.  Our lives are guided by the questions we are asking.  Our questions reflect what our hearts are looking for, and what you seek, you will find.
15.  When you are you young you have answers.  When you are old, you have questions.
16.  Jesus - the closer you get to him, the more you understand how far away you are.
17.  We must teach Bible knowledge and verse memory so that when we ae need to know where things are, it is easy.
18.  Because of self-love, we want to display our personalities (i.e., our hearts, minds, emotions - who we are), but these only get in the way of the display of the spirit.  It is the spirit that gives life. The goal is to display the spirit - both the spirit and the Spirit. See Watchman Nee - The Release of the Spirit.
19.  What is not of faith is sin.  This verse has eluded me for years.  However, mid-13c., faith, feith, fei, fai "faithfulness to a trust or promise; loyalty to a person; honesty, truthfulness," if we think of faith as loyalty and allegiance, then this verse is perfectly clear.
20.  ‘God, I thank You that I am not like other people: Luke 18:11.  This is the essence of pride. I am not fat, stupid, gaudy, an idiot.  Other people are not as wise, intelligent, insightful, attractive, witty, talented, wealthy, responsible, gifted, strong, crafty or good as I am.
21.  Technologies are like sharp sticks.  When you lean on them they will pierce your hand.  My granddaughter has a "hot bear" -  a microwavable cuddle toy.  The great thing about it is that my daughter can microwave it so that it is warm for her.  The bad thing is that my daughter has to get up in the middle of the night to warm it for her because my granddaughter has to have a warm bear. (4/20/19)
22. Confession of sin.  Why do we confess our sins? I feel bad enough about myself; why would I go to church.  The goal of our instruction is love.  He who is forgiven much loves much.  The sun is 93,000,000 miles away from earth.  Mt. Everest is about 5.5 miles. At the top, congrats you are 1/17,000,000th closer.  God gives nature word pictures. If God is the sun, our best efforts cannot get us close.  Mother Theresa, Billy Graham, Apostle Paul at best 1/17,000,000th more righteous than you. The goal of confession is to see that great love that Jesus would condescend to miserable sinners like. us.
Sometimes confession on Sunday morning - "I'm going to give you two minutes to clean up the 100 acre toxic waste dump that is your life." We need specific areas.
Two things - The goal is to show the love of Christ.  The wrong response is to try to clean up ourselves.  The correct response to put on the Lord Jesus.  Put on his righteousness.  The doctine of total depravity is a gloriously freeing truth.  It forces me to give up trying to establish my own righteousness. I am the elephant man - clean me up and i'm still repulsive.  I am a pig.  Clean me up and I'm still a pig.  I have to clothe myself in the righteousness of Jesus.  I have to put away, throw away, abhor myself (Pilgrim's Progress) for trying to establish my own righteousness.  When I take off the Lord Jesus, then the devil has me. I really have no righteousness.  When I came to realize this sweet truth, I had been striving for 20 years. Trying to please God in my own merit.  Try harder Christianity.  When I read Luther, who told me that I can never look at myself for righteousness, but that I had to put on the Lord Jesus.  It was like I had been climbing a sheer face for years. Tired, bruised, thirsty hungry hopeless.  I get to a short, flat area climb up and there's a helicopter.

Further you are the further you have to go. The mountains are 5 miles, 50 miles, 500 miles.

The newlywed husband asks his new bride.  "Do I have to kiss you every day?  Do I have to think about you all the time?  Do I have to delight in only you and bring you gifts?"  She smiles and replies, "Yes, but not that kind of have to."

If the Beatles were resurrected and came to your town for a concert, you would "have to" go.
If Clemson plays in the national championship game, there are many people who have to be there.

Hot and Cool Media (under construction)

From Understanding Media by Marshall McLuhan, and "Teaching McLuhan: Understanding Understanding Media" by David Bobbitt, Wesleyan College, http://enculturation.net/teaching-mcluhan, Published: December 30, 2011, plus author's comments.

Hot and cool media

Three concepts that are captured in "hot" vs. "cool":

1. Hot and cool refer to the The overall effect of the medium (as contrasted with mere content).  Hot media tend to squelch conversation, and foster specialization.  For example attending a lecture on the presence of sulfur bacteria in groundwater would be low in audience participation and be highly specialized.  Cool media are more participatory and foster global thinking. A living room discussion about how to improve family relationships would exemplify this.

The new electric structuring and configuring of life more and more encounters the old lineal and fragmentary procedures and tools of analysis from the mechanical age. More and more we turn from the content of messages to study total effect. . . . Concern with effect rather than meaning is a basic change of our electric time, for effect involves the total situation, and not a singe level of information movement. (26) [all emphases in original]

2.  Cultures themselves can be hot or cool.
3.  Whether a medium is hot or cool can also depend on how it is used in a particular society, and that can change over time.


Hot Medium
1. Extends single sense in high definition - there is less that has to be filled in by the mind.  A photograph leaves nothing to fill in.
2. Low in audience participation - there is less that has to be filled in by the audience.  The audience is more passive.  A large church service - you engage but you are scripted.
engenders specialization/fragmentation
detribalizes
excludes
uniform, mechanical (structured ???)
extends space ???
horizontally repetitive ???

Cool Medium
1. Low definition (less data).  We have to fill in missing information. A cartoon gives the bare minimum- a lot of detail must (or can) be filled in by the brain.
2. High in audience participation.  A small group discussion.
engenders holistic patterns
tribalizes
includes
organic (unstructured, free-form ???)
collapses space ????
creates vertical associations ???

Right Brain Culture (under construction)

Early cultures were right brained.  They were primarily oral in communication, and people thought globally because things didn't happen sequentially around them, but rather with randomness and simultaneity.  Then came the phonetic alphabet.  The Greeks took this from the Phonecians and began the world of linear and sequential thought, categories and definitions.  Thus began a swing to the left brain.  The Romans took this and spread it across the Western world, and this kind of thinking and culture has been our foundation for 2500 years.  The school day for every kid was a sequence:

Now with the internet and global connectedness, the world of randomness and simultaneity has returned.  Things happen with such speed that they cannot be easily.